


Scattered Teeth and Ashes

by Sheliak



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Warring States Period (Naruto)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22661893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheliak/pseuds/Sheliak
Summary: Senju Tobirama was a suspicious bastard. Kisame could respect that.
Relationships: Hoshigaki Kisame/Senju Tobirama, past Hoshigaki Kisame & Uchiha Itachi
Comments: 21
Kudos: 487
Collections: Past Imperfect Future Unknown 2019





	Scattered Teeth and Ashes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fencesit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fencesit/gifts).



Much later, it occurred to Kisame that the seal must have been calibrated for someone with much smaller chakra reserves. 

For Itachi—Itachi when they’d first met, before the disease sapped his reserves—it might have done what it was supposed to do, what he’d expected, and taken him back to the time he wanted to be. For Itachi at the end, it might have taken him back a few years—long enough to turn his brother to a different path, if not fix much else. 

For a jinchuuriki, it might even have done the same. After all, their chakra would be split between this seal and the one locking a tailed beast into their body. 

Kisame, though, had the reserves of a bijuu without the struggle of containing one. He hadn’t even known to try to restrict the damn thing from using all he had to offer, and so it had sent him far, far further back than he’d hoped. 

He’d meant to go back to the Bloody Mist, to overwrite his mistakes, see if he could make himself a loyal life, or make his village an honest one. He’d meant to find his leader and ask what the hell they’d been working for all those years. He’d meant… 

Well. It hadn’t worked out.

* * *

Kisame had, in fact, gone back long before his mistakes. Long before his birth, which suggested that he had at least managed to ensure that those mistakes would never happen. He’d never live long enough to have the opportunity.

If the jutsu hadn’t had to account for making him a new body, he’d probably have ended up in the Sage’s time. As it was, he thought he must be back in the Warring Clans era. He certainly hadn’t found the slightest trace of a hidden village. 

Ninja, though. There were lots of those around—almost all of them fighting alongside teammates who matched their skills and weaknesses almost exactly. It was kind of pathetic, honestly.

It was enough to make him nostalgic for the Bloody Mist. As many faults as his village had had, they’d at least understood the value of going into battle alongside comrades with different skills. 

And now the place that had betrayed Kisame and that he’d betrayed in turn—for whose sake he’d betrayed his teammates until he couldn’t take it anymore—might never be. Kisame was a little surprised to be unhappy about that. 

If he had to _found_ Mist to make it into a place that would accept his loyalty… 

That didn’t sound like such a bad idea, some days. Damn, he was lonely.

But not quite lonely enough to deal with the feud between the Kaguya and the Hozuki, currently the two most powerful clans in what would one day be Water Country. 

_Clan ninja._

(He ignored the fact that his bloodline might easily have founded a clan, if history had gone a little differently.) 

Instead of thinking about that too much, Kisame left his not-yet-homeland for Itachi’s. The Senju and Uchiha clans should be there, fighting just like the Kaguya and Hozuki; their feud would have far more of an impact on history. 

What he’d do when he got there… well. That was the question.

* * *

He wandered until he hit the _other_ great feud of this age, the one that actually meant something to history. 

He considered approaching the Uchiha (the leader he’d given so much of his life to, the ancestors of the partner who’d been his only real teammate)… but no. They were too insular, here and now; they’d never accept an outsider.

Instead, he went to the Senju.

* * *

Senju Tobirama was a suspicious bastard. Kisame could respect that.

He was also a damn good fighter—the best fight Kisame’d had since he came to this era. (It was probably unfair to blame these malnourished fools for not having the advantages of village training, of a century of innovations. They were still boring to fight—with a few exceptions.)

Still. He hadn’t actually come here to fight this man, no matter how entertaining it was. 

He’d come to change history—which meant joining, or at least allying with, a clan. So, once he had the pretext of being satisfied with the man’s strength, he told him. 

Tobirama didn’t take him at his word—he would’ve been disappointed if he had. But he told his brother.

The Senju clan head was his brother’s opposite, so open and trusting that Kisame knew the stories of his power weren't exaggerated. If they were, if he was any less than the near-divine figure Kisame used to scoff at, he’d be dead.

He’d pulled off a miracle, arguably. But that miracle had grown the usual underbelly of lies and betrayal. That had cost Kisame’s partner, just as Mist’s paranoia and cruelty had, in the end, cost Kisame. 

Well. Maybe he could make a difference here, since he couldn’t stand trying at home. 

Hashirama accepted his offer shockingly easily. (Kisame grumpily revised his estimate of the man’s strength up a notch.) Of course, it must have helped that his bloodline was well-known to be clanless, these days.

And he settled in to wait for a chance to make his change.

* * *

He spent more time than he would’ve guessed with Tobirama. 

He was pretty sure the guy was keeping an eye on him—just in case. Fair enough. If he’d had a brother like Hashirama, he would have watched his new recruits too. 

_Someone_ in this clan had to have a healthy level of paranoia. 

Besides, it gave him the chance to challenge Tobirama to regular spars. Even if they weren’t going all-out anymore, it was fun. (And it had been ages since he’d had a sparring partner who could push him.) 

(Itachi, whose fights were over before they began, didn’t count.)

After a few weeks of that, Tobirama started inviting himself to Kisame’s meals. 

Kisame didn’t mind. Tobirama was good company, after all.

* * *

Of course there were battles, too. Mostly against the Uchiha, with a smattering of actual missions. 

Kisame wasn’t at all surprised that most of those missions were with Tobirama. 

He _was_ surprised, the first time Tobirama saved his life. And even more so, the first time Tobirama trusted him to watch his back.

It was strange, being _trusted_ by someone other than Itachi or Madara. 

But not unpleasant.

* * *

For all Kisame's planning, when he finally made his change, it was a decision of the moment. He could _definitely_ have planned better if he'd been thinking properly.

Thing was, Madara’s brat of a brother looked just like Itachi’s. 

And apparently, Kisame had spent too long with his partner’s obsession to let an exact ringer for Uchiha Sasuke die in front of him. 

So he was the one injured, instead—but he was also stronger than Uchiha Izuna, healthier to begin with, and he knew enough medical jutsu to keep himself alive until the sorry excuse for a medic the Senju kept around could get to him. 

_This one’s for you,_ he thought, and he didn’t know if he meant those words for Itachi or the Madara he once served or for someone else entirely.

* * *

Senju Tobirama was waiting for him when he woke up. 

“Why didn’t you let me kill him?”

There it was: the price of a betrayal. 

No use saying he hadn’t meant to—even if it was the truth. And no use saying he’d done it for Hashirama’s dream, even if he was the only one here who really believed it could work. 

“Killing him wouldn’t have done you any good.” 

Tobirama raised an eyebrow. “Killing the Uchiha’s second strongest warrior _wouldn’t_ have turned the tide of our feud?”

Kisame snorted, and levered himself up. He couldn’t stand, but he’d rather at least sit for this conversation. (Samehada was still in the room, he noticed. Tobirama must not want him dead, then, despite everything.) 

“Madara’s on the edge of agreeing to your brother’s plan.” He barely kept himself from adding the word “idiot” into that sentence. “He’s too tired to keep fighting. But if you’d killed his brother now, he would have turned on you eventually. Oh, he would have meant all his promises—but he wouldn’t have been able to let go, and eventually they would’ve become lies.” 

Tobirama was silent a long time. “You think he won’t, now?” 

Kisame knew Madara better than he could admit. “I think there’s a chance.” 

“You’re as crazy as my brother.” 

“I don’t notice you arguing with him.” Kisame looked around. “And this isn’t the infirmary.” 

“It’s my house.” Tobirama crossed his arms. “I’m as good a medic as anyone else in this clan.” 

Well. Kisame grinned, the sharp smile that scared most ninja off. 

Tobirama didn’t grin back. But he wasn’t intimidated either, and that counted for—nearly everything.

* * *

Of course, once he admitted that he was alive and staying with (one of) the Senju, Kisame had to look their clan head’s main project in the eye. Hashirama was openly talking about banding together, not just with the Uchiha but the Hyuuga and Aburame and and the Ino-Shika-Chou alliance—and, indeed, everyone else who was willing to agree not to murder their neighbors. 

Damnit, Kisame hadn’t wanted to found a village. That was why he’d left Water Country. 

(He ignored that he could have left Fire Country, too. Could have kept walking until no one he met knew what a ninja _was._ ) 

Instead, he tried to argue. He started with Tobirama, since he was still stuck in the man’s house recuperating. 

“You do this, the other clans will do the same. All you’ll be doing is making bigger wars. The world doesn’t change and ninja don’t change.” 

“Go argue with my brother.” 

So Kisame did.

* * *

Arguing with Hashirama got him nowhere. 

“If my kids live even a year longer than my brothers did, this will have been worth it,” Hashirama told him, and Kisame couldn’t exactly argue with that, could he? 

(That was a lie. He could say, “Do this, and the world will end when your granddaughter is a grown woman, at the hands of a child of this village of yours.” That’d be the truth. _A_ truth. But he had no proof, and all that time later… it might not even matter. A century of kids mostly living to twelve might be worth it, to Hashirama.)

He didn’t have any better luck arguing with Madara. (Not that he could argue with Madara worth a damn. He’d spent so long not doing that, and now—and now—)

He thought for a moment he was making headway with Mito. She certainly _looked_ like she was considering what he was saying. But in the end, she said, “I’m still helping build this village.”

And that was that.

* * *

So Konoha happened, almost the same, and Kisame knew that in a few years he’d hear of Mist and the rest. But the Uzumaki packed up and moved there, instead of putting down roots where they were. (Maybe his arguments with Mito had been worthwhile, after all.)

And they brought some sharp-toothed husbands and wives and followers, men and women with blue skin almost as much chakra as him. Kisame didn’t know how the hell to feel about that.

* * *

The village was going to be built, now. So Kisame began making different arguments. 

“If this place is going to be worth anything, it has to be a place where ninja can be _loyal_ to their teammates. If the village requires that loyalty for itself, you’ve already failed.”

And this time, they listened.

Lies would always be a ninja’s stock in trade. Kisame knew that, like he knew his sword and his scars. But if they kept the core of this new village honest—then it might be something worthwhile, to spend another life fighting for.

* * *

The years marched by. New clans joined; other villages came together. At first, Hashirama acted as his own ambassador, leaving Madara to rule the village in his absence; when he needed another, it was Mito he sent, with Tobirama or even Kisame to watch her back. 

It took Kisame a long time to realize—Konoha history had never been something he’d studied—but he was pretty sure the First Hokage had died young. This time, Hashirama didn’t. 

One day he remarked to Tobirama—over breakfast; he'd never bothered moving out—“If your brother lives to be old, the Second can be some Uchiha kid.” 

That’d involve passing over a lot of strong shinobi in Hashirama’s generation. (Technically including Kisame.) But it might head off some trouble. 

“…Kagami is promising,” Tobirama said. And that was probably the answer: Hashirama’s successor would be his brother’s Uchiha protege. 

And Kisame couldn’t argue with the choice. Kagami was one of the best of his generation, and he was loyal to his teammates in a way Kisame had come to appreciate. (Itachi would have liked him, he thought. Well, maybe that was wishful thinking. But he figured he had a right to some eccentricity, for surviving as long as he had.)

Kagami had a teammate, though, whose name was also familiar.

“… Watch that one.” 

“Danzou?” 

Kisame wasn’t about to start giving up intel at his age. But even if he never met Shimura Danzou in his own time—he knew him, from Itachi. 

It would be simpler to kill him, of course. But Kisame wasn't a comrade-killer in this time, in this life. And the idea was in Tobirama’s head, now. He’d give the kid a fair chance—but he would be paying attention.

* * *

This world was different. No jinchuuriki; the bijuu still roamed free and dangerous, and no one was likely to think of using them if Madara and Mito didn’t get there first.

No seeds laid for Root. There was Mist, away in the land that was starting to call itself Water Country—but not the Bloody Mist, not without Madara's intervention.

 _Ninja don't change,_ he'd told Tobirama. But so far, they'd built an honest village. And here and now, Kisame was glad to be loyal to it, and to these people.

**Author's Note:**

> For the purposes of this story, I chose to assume that at least some of Kisame's interactions with "Uchiha Madara" really were him, rather than Obito.


End file.
